Dr. Gilmore (1979)
Dr. Gilmore is a major supporting protagonist of the 1979 incarnation of Cyborg 009. A former member of Black Ghost, Gilmore was responsible for transforming nine people into the 00 cyborgs until, plagued by guilt, he betrayed the organization and atoned for his actions by helping the 00 cyborgs fight evil threats across the world. Appearance Dr. Gilmore is a short old man with short and messy, light-gray hair with thick eyebrows, a short beard (with no mustache), black eyes, and a rather large nose. He's usually seen wearing a dark brown suit. Personality Like previous incarnations, Dr. Gilmore is defined by his fatherly love and support of the 00 cyborgs. Due to personal guilt regarding his involvement in Black Ghost's 00 cyborg program, he tries to make up for his actions by giving the 00 cyborgs good advice and providing whatever background information he has on the enemies the 00 cyborgs face. History Dr. Gilmore was once friends and colleagues with two scientists who attended university with him in his twenties. One of the scientists was a beautiful woman named Astacia, who was the subject of affections from both Dr. Gilmore and his male colleague Gerhardt. Since they both pursued the same woman, Dr. Gilmore and Dr. Gerhardt soon became romantic rivals. As years passed, Gerhardt and Astacia had gotten married and lost contact with him, but tragedy struck when Astacia was fatally wounded in an automobile accident. On her deathbed, the blinded and bandaged Astacia mistook her husband for Dr. Gilmore and confessed her feelings to him, angering Gerhardt and leading him to seek revenge against the other man. In the meantime, Dr. Gilmore had wound up a captive of the Nazis during WWII, forced into working for their cyborg project. After his liberation, his peace did not last long, as he was recruited by the Black Ghost organization for similar purposes. Once the ninth prototype of the 00 Cyborg project was completed, Dr. Gilmore and the 00 Cyborgs rebelled from the organization and went on the run. They hid out at the home of Dr. Kassel, a colleague of Dr. Gilmore, but Black Ghost soldiers soon invaded the home and murdered Kassel's son and daughter-in-law, leaving his granddaughter Liz without parents. Dr. Gilmore and the 00 Cyborg team managed to escape, and would fight against the Black Ghost organization until they were believed to be defeated. However, five years later, Dr. Gilmore would call the 00 Cyborgs out of retirement to deal with new threats. Notes * Dr. Gilmore is shown to be a somewhat younger man in flashbacks in episode 11, when his WWII history is shown, though a design like this is also used in episode 21 when stating his history with Black Ghost. It is possible that there may have been writer conflict or animator miscommunications with his age and origin (as Soji Yoshikawa wrote ep.11, Masaki Tsuji wrote ep. 19, and Masaaki Sakurai wrote ep.21), or that it was meant to imply that he had worked for Black Ghost for possibly decades. The information in this article is an attempt to reconcile these flashbacks. Category:Cyborg 009 (1979) Category:Humans Category:Male characters